NorthwestDigest

ANCHORAGE - Anchorage police and animal control officers investigating the case of 200 cats inside a South Anchorage home have found a second house where cats and birds were being stashed.

Police say it appears that Krystal Allen took 15 cats and kittens, and 16 birds, to a second house where an elderly woman lives. Investigators discovered the second house on Saturday.

Allen reluctantly acknowledged the animals were hers and has voluntarily surrendered them to animal control.

She has told police that she took in strays but that the situation had gotten out of hand. She has denied there were 200 cats in her house, but police say they counted well over 100 last week and found evidence of many more.

Neighbors' complaints about the stench coming from the house led police to Allen's home, where they found dozens and dozens of cats, plus a few dogs and birds, in a house riddled with animal waste.

Anchorage police officer Jackie Valdez said Saturday that when she and animal control officers first inspected the house, they counted more than 100, saw additional animals beyond that, and saw evidence cats were living elsewhere in the house.

The audit will be done to see if the diocese is complying with recommendations made by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in response to sexual abuse among the clergy.

At a meeting in June, the national bishops group approved a second audit of all 195 Catholic dioceses to be completed by the end of the year. Fairbanks Bishop Donald Kettler expects auditors to begin the process on Monday.

Last year, auditors focused on surveying the extent of sexual abuse among the 195 dioceses nationwide and auditing each diocese's compliance with past and present sexual abuse policies.

"Last time it was more subjective," Kettler said. "They talked to people. Checked all of our files, and mostly visited with people inside the diocese and the community to see their impressions of the process."

Kettler said this time the audit is being done to see if the dioceses are complying and "that all the things we are supposed to be doing are getting done."

The child protection charter mandates that all diocesan employees and volunteers undergo a background check and that a safe environment education program be instituted throughout the diocese.

Ferries could be watched as possible targets

SEATTLE - Federal authorities believe Washington state's ferry system has been under surveillance and could be at risk as a possible target for a terrorist attack, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.

Law-enforcement officers, ferry workers and passengers have reported at least 157 suspicious incidents since Sept. 11, 2001, the date of terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

An FBI assessment determined that 19 of those incidents were highly likely or extremely likely to involve terrorist surveillance, The Times said.

"We may well be the target of preoperational terrorist planning," U.S. Attorney John McKay told The Times.

The Times obtained a document detailing the incidents.

Reports included individuals asking questions about ferry operations or taking photos of stairwells, car decks and workers. A man who is a known subject in an FBI terrorism investigation was involved in three of the incidents.